First off, I'm not a sloper - living in the flat-lands of Illinois as I do. (But, I am hoping to get a taste of it soon.) So, please forgive this question if it comes across as dumb. But ....

In the last Q&EFI there was a report from a sloping event, and in the article was what appeared to be a picture of a person hanging in the slope lift without any aid other than his body and the wind.
I'm wondering if it was a joke (i.e. the picture is actually of someone jumping in the air and subsequently falling to earth), or if is real (that person was actually suspended in the mid-air).

Well, sometimes you wind is strong enough it feels like that can happen, but in this case, he was jumping. Just think about the size of hang gliders needed to keep a human in the air, on some of the very same slopes.

On the other hand, give someone a 4 meter plane and stand on the edge of the cliff at Point Fermin... naah, I wouldn't want to explain that one to the police

that's what I refer to as slope valhalla... that orgasmic point where there is sufficient lift to hold anything in the air: you throw a rock and it keeps on going, turns around, and goes back over your head. Push your honda off the edge and it ends up at the top of a 40' cedar behind you. I might even consider flying my 1.20 sized CG Extra 300 at that point